


Seraselda Drabbles

by prin_zyth



Category: Seraphina - Rachel Hartman
Genre: (and it's really bad), (only in one of them though), Canon Compliant, Drabble, Drabble Collection, F/F, Femslash February 2019, Implied sexy times, Poetry, Spoilers for Tess of the Road
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-08
Updated: 2019-08-04
Packaged: 2020-06-24 21:37:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 28
Words: 2,800
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19732261
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/prin_zyth/pseuds/prin_zyth
Summary: I do the Femslash February 2019 prompts by @femslashfeb on Tumblr BUT IN JULY!I'm going to be doing drabbles, each of which is (hopefully!) exactly 100 words long. I'll try to do all 28! They can be read separately or together.@foughfaugh and @incorrect-seraphina on Tumblr :) hmu if you wanna talk





	1. Opposites

Short and tall. Blonde and brunette. Outgoing and reserved. Royal and common.  
  
They truly were opposites in every sense of the word.  
  
But Glisselda came to her rooms that night, bearing harpsichord music and a desire to learn, and the two of them hammered away at it for hours, the musician’s fingers guiding the leader’s.  
  
And the next day, Seraphina helped her go over official paperwork, their arms brushing as they sat next to each other on the sofa.  
  
They were opposites, but that never stopped them from reaching across the boundaries that divided them and taking the other’s hand.


	2. Pink

"Pink looks good on you."

Seraphina leaned against the doorframe, watching. Glisselda’s back was to her, but they made eye contact in her vanity mirror, and the young queen gave a short laugh. She stood up and smoothed her rosy gown.

Seraphina was not coming with her tonight; it would raise too many questions.

Glisselda turned around to face her. She strode over and silenced her with a kiss, finally breaking to whisper, “You can take it off me when I come home.”

She put on her queenliness and left, letting her hand drag against Phina’s as she walked away.


	3. Lost

Seraphina used to get lost all the time, even after living at Castle Orison for months. The hallways seemed unending, and the rooms were strange and unfamiliar.

When she and Glisselda started living together, the queen began taking her around the castle, showing her where she'd played as a child, or where she'd had her first kiss, or where she'd hidden from Lady Corongi when she didn't want to do her lessons.

Seraphina doesn't get lost anymore. The hallways no longer seem empty and cavernous; the rooms are no longer cold and foreign. Now, it all just feels like home.


	4. Cafe

After fifty-nine nights at the Blue Salon, Glisselda asked Seraphina to take her to Quighole. 

They dressed up in Glisselda's poor approximation of a peasant's disguise and scratched at the secret door, giving the password and waiting to slip in between the bars of the prison-like neighborhood. From there, they entered the hidden, underground public house. 

Seraphina expected her partner to squeal, to grasp at her arm, to hide from the quigutl, to wrinkle her nose at the smell. 

But the young queen did none of these things. Instead, she kissed Seraphina on the cheek, wordlessly telling her, "Thank you."


	5. Sharp

It was sharp when Dionne's knife sliced through her skin, ripping apart her flesh and spilling her blood onto the laundry room floor. The pain and the wound were sharp. Even as the physician's brandy, tart and saccharine, dulled her senses and softened the ache, the sharpness remained.

If the knife was sharp, then Glisselda was smooth, slipping her into fresh, clean clothing and murmuring quietly as she fretted over what had happened to Seraphina. Neither woman realized then that all the things Glisselda did for Seraphina were, in disguise, just a thousand little ways to say,

"I love you."


	6. The Moon

During the war, Glisselda stayed up every night, staring at the moon. She was waiting for the shadow of a dragon to tear through its silver light, chiming the final death toll of Goredd and marking her forever as the leader who killed her people.

She still looks at the moon at night, but not because she's scared. She watches it with Phina, and the two of them talk about their days and their thoughts, their dreams and their secrets. Now, the moon is not a symbol of fear of what might come, but one of hope, trust, and love.


	7. Disaster

Their first two kisses were both disasters.

When Glisselda got up on her tiptoes and kissed Phina, she was met only with a reluctant, apologetic "Oh." Heartbroken, she realized that Phina might never love her as she loved Kiggs.

Their second kiss happened during a harpsichord lesson. As Glisselda played, Seraphina leaned in, trying to find Selda's lips with her own. But the distracted queen fell off her stool, laughing as Phina frantically apologized for knocking her over.

Seraphina helped up Glisselda, who wrapped her hands around her teacher's neck and pressed their lips together in their first true kiss.


	8. Silent

Seraphina isn't really a silent person. She's quiet, but not silent. She's always communicating, through gentle touches to Selda's shoulder, or by running her fingers through the queen's golden curls.

Or through her music, rich chords and soaring melodies that speak louder than any words.

Glisselda is often silent. At court, foreign dignitaries spew platitudes and empty phrases, and she nods and responds in kind, usually saying nothing at all. Her audience isn't even listening.

Except with Phina. Then, Glisselda talks and Seraphina pays attention, neither of them silent, both of them filling in the gaps in each other's musings.


	9. Lavender

After unpinning her garden, Seraphina started having crippling headaches again. Meditation helped some, but she hadn't experienced anything this new in six years, and she was out of practice.

Glisselda took it upon herself to help. She forced Phina to have absurd quantities of water, vitamins, and fancy foods, and she wouldn't even let her _near_ alcohol, but nothing did the trick.

Finally, she bought a special lavender oil. She made Phina inhale it, mixed into boiling water.

"Better?" she ventured hopefully.

Seraphina smiled. "Much."

She was clearly lying, and Glisselda laughed. "Glad to hear it."

She would keep trying.


	10. Waiting

Glisselda is always off at some meeting or reception, leaving Phina at home, waiting for her return.

Kiggs waits with her for their lover and cousin, respectively. She reads Pontheus, and he, Necans. They treasure this time together--some of the only time they get. After all, the prince usually attends these meetings with the queen, except when he can get away.

Glisselda comes home, undoes her hair, and flops onto the sofa between them, taking each of their hands in one of hers and squeezing them, resting her head on Phina's shoulder.

They are happiest when they are together.


	11. Rest Day

Observations:

1\. Every seventh day, Queen Glisselda attends a session with her spiritual advisor.  
2\. Every seventh day, Prince Consort Lucian Kiggs hands over the Guard to his right hand and goes hunting.  
3\. Every seventh day, Music Mistress Seraphina Dombegh takes the day off to visit her father.  
4\. Queen Glisselda isn’t religious.  
5\. Prince Consort Lucian Kiggs never kills anything.  
6\. Claude Dombegh works at St. Bert’s Collegium that day.  
7\. Every seventh day, three figures meet in the Queenswood for a picnic and conversation.

Royals and their lovers aren’t given rest days; they have to make them.


	12. Balloons

At the wedding, there were helium balloons, a draconian invention. They bobbed in the wind, tugging at the ends of their strings as if trying to escape. Seraphina untied one and dragged it to the edge of the balcony with her.

She was heartbroken about this whole ceremony. But that's all it was: a ceremony. She let go of the balloon and watched it fade into the distance, taking her despair with it.

Tonight, she'd dance with Kiggs, which would probably raise some eyebrows, and with Glisselda, which probably wouldn't. She'd celebrate the love that the three had found together.


	13. The Sun

Seraphina was already awake by the time the sunlight woke up Glisselda. She got up, only to have Selda grab her wrist, stopping her. The queen covered her face with a pillow, blocking out the morning light as if to change the time.

Pulling her wrist free, Phina murmured, "I'm late."

"You're a living saint; they won't care."

"The queen can't have such a nonchalant attitude toward timeliness, dear."

"Don't tell me what I can't do!"

Phina laughed, picked up the pillow, and kissed Glisselda before replacing it.

"I'll see you tonight," she said, smiling to herself as she left.


	14. White

The royal wing burned in a blinding, white fire, taking years of memories with it.

Kiggs served the double duty of mourning and investigating the fire. "My source says it was the Sons," he told Glisselda and Seraphina, huddling together in their inn room. "Probably those rumors about you two that are going around."

Glisselda nodded and leaned in closer to her lover. They'd have to do something about this eventually, but for now, she was scared. Seraphina knew hatred, but Selda hadn't experienced something like this kind of violent loathing before. She needed someone to be there for her.


	15. Umbrellas

They admired the new royal wing, holding umbrellas in the rain. Seraphina's attention had wandered; she focused on what Selda was saying.

"-but we won't move in until next week. Phina?"

She turned to face Selda. "Hm?"

"You seem worried. Don’t be. Lucian tightened security; we’re safe."

"I know. It's just that this is a fresh start, and I'm nervous, but excited to share it with you."

Glisselda smiled and glowed, effortlessly radiant. Phina took her free hand and, knowing there was nobody nearby, leaned in and kissed her.

"I love you," Selda whispered.

Phina smiled. "I love you, too."


	16. Blue

Seraphina tugged at the royal blue wrapping paper. It seemed too expensive to rip, but when Glisselda squealed with impatience, she decided to tear the thing off and get it over with.

Underneath the ostentatious exterior was a small box. Phina opened it, revealing a pair of silver earrings.

"They're the symbol of St. Polypous, my psalter-saint," Glisselda explained. "I got a pair, too, the symbol of St. Capiti, so we can always have a piece of each other." She paused. "What do you think?"

"They're perfect," Phina replied, and they were.

Glisselda glowed with pride and satisfaction. "Happy birthday."


	17. Damned

It seemed the Dombegh family was damned.

Seraphina had finally secured Tess and Jeanne positions at court, hoping this would fix their family and maybe even win her their approval, even love.

But now, nothing would be fixed. Tess would be sequestered away, and the family would be torn apart even further.

She went home and told Glisselda about everything, her carefully stoic expression disintegrating into sobs.

Glisselda held her partner, assuring her that everything would be all right. She didn't know this yet as true, but Phina needed her, and it was her duty to help her through this.


	18. Safe

Seraphina had always sought safety.

Once, she’d found it in music, the last remaining piece of her mother. She’d let music lead her away from the false safety of her family home, to the open danger of the royal court.

There, her safety had become secrets and lying. Protection came from invisibility, being hidden from everyone. She’d thought this a solution, and it had kept her safe, but at great cost.

Now, her safety is in Selda. She shares her music and secrets in exchange for Selda’s strengths and shortcomings and unrelenting love. It’s terrifying and exhilarating, yet unmistakably safe.


	19. Vanilla

On a trip to Ziziba, Kiggs, Phina, and Selda had tried vanilla ice cream. It was cold and sweet—too much so for Kiggs and Phina—but Selda adored it. Kiggs and Phina brought the recipe and some vanilla back to Goredd. They gave Castle Orison's head chef the recipe, and by Selda's birthday, she'd concocted something close to vanilla ice cream.

After the formal party at court, Kiggs and Phina proudly presented the half-melted ice cream, much to Selda's delight. She tasted a spoonful.

"Close enough," she declared, hugging Kiggs and kissing Phina. "Thank you both, my dear friends."


	20. Hate

“Hate” didn’t begin to describe the way Glisselda felt about Jannoula.

“Violation” was the closest descriptor she could come up with, perhaps because it seemed to capture the balance between her hatred and her residual feelings for Jannoula.

Once, she’d told Phina, crying, about how Jannoula had figured out her secret and demanded something from her.

“I didn’t have a choice,” she’d told Phina, collapsed in her arms.

“You always have a choice,” she’d replied. “Even now, okay?”

Glisselda wrapped her arms around Phina’s shoulders, burying her face in Phina’s neck. “I know. And I wouldn’t make a different one.”


	21. Wings

For a half dragon, Phina looked very human. When Glisselda first learned she wasn't—at least, not completely—her first idea was a pair of wings, curled against Phina's back, ready to put immeasurable distance, metaphorical and literal, between them.  
  
Phina showed her the scales on her left forearm long before the ones on her abdomen. Glisselda saw them by accident once, but now they held a new meaning. She ran her fingers over them lightly, startled by their simplicity.  
  
She saw Phina bare, and yet the image of the wings persists: a shadow of who she might have been.


	22. Shopping

The queendom needed an heir.

The idea of how this would come about terrified Glisselda. Nobody was rushing her, but it needed to happen soon, and it had to be Glisselda to do it, since Phina was surely infertile.

Together, they took comfort in preparing for the baby. Shopping for cribs and wall murals and toys and clothes felt like a step in the right direction. They planned the baby’s education and childhood—how it would be raised, and by whom. They had a half-baked plan, and even as the future loomed ominously, they were excited for it to come.


	23. Gold

_I have no need for precious stones,  
nor gold.  
A thousand chandeliers  
give light too cold.  
My home is small, my pockets  
smaller still.  
And yet I have my freedom  
and my will.  
My soul can feel; my mind  
is yet to fade.  
And I need not this earthly field,  
this shade._  
  
Seraphina had read Glisselda one of Necans’s most notable poems and her personal favorite: "Gold." Selda had smiled sadly and called it beautiful, and Phina hadn't understood until later what was hurting her: Phina's obsession with fleeing "this earthly field" and its inhabitants, leaving everyone behind, including her.


	24. Blessed

Seraphina associated the word “blessed” with a time in her life that she would have rather forgotten. But here, it seemed appropriate.

After not bleeding that month, she'd gone to a saar physician, who gave her the news. She'd come to accept her infertility, but this was wonderful.

She considered telling Kiggs first—after all, he was the father—but instead, she told Glisselda, who squealed with delight and insisted on feeling for the kicks that wouldn't come for many months. The arrangements were complicated and were going to separate them for many months, but they still felt undeniably blessed.


	25. Split

Glisselda’s infrequent visits to Seraphina during her pregnancy only provided a temporary reprieve, reopening a scarring wound.

Phina composed every morning, channeling Selda in her playing, defining her in chords and arpeggios, melodies and harmonies. She emulated the baby that she could feel growing inside of her. And she tried to capture the relationship that she wanted the three of them to someday have together. Music was hopelessly inadequate, yet the closest thing to truth these days.

Sometimes, she felt the split wasn’t between the two of them, but in herself—a part of her was broken, empty without Selda.


	26. Comfort

Glisselda came to take care of her for the last two weeks. It was a comfort; Phina knew bodily grotesqueries, but pregnancy was something else. In addition to her general needs, Selda read to Phina from _Love and Work_ , which she still hadn’t read.  
  
Phina loved the parts about responsibility—the intersection of love and work. Pontheus seemed to understand the passion she held for her both, her deep loyalty to music and Glisselda, and the way her life would crumple should either be taken from her. This, and Selda’s hand in her own, got her through the final days.


	27. Space

When Seraphina was born, the world shattered.  
  
Where there had been warmth and comfort, there was now cold and hostility. Where there had been music, there was now a deafening silence. And where there had been safety, there was now vulnerability.  
  
When Zythia was born, the world grew.  
  
She didn't lose a mother as Seraphina had; she gained one. Where Seraphina had found emptiness, Zythia found an impossibly full space, brimming with love and light and family. There was no fear, no sense of loss. Even if she didn’t realize it as a newborn, she would never be alone here.


	28. Princess

Goredd had not had a princess for many years before Zythia was born. There was gossip and speculation, naturally, but no one really knew the girl’s “true” parentage.

The public couldn’t know this because they never saw Glisselda tending to Seraphina after her birth, nor the games in the afternoon, nor the singing and reading together in the evening, nor the two women taking turns to put their daughter to sleep.

They didn't know these things, and so they gossiped on, but the women didn't care. They had each other and their princess and her father—they had a family.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to anyone who read this far!
> 
> I run @incorrect-seraphina, one of two Seraphina blogs on Tumblr (the other being @sdombegh, who is awesome), and you should totally follow both of us because we post all the time! And if you ever want to talk to me about the Rachel Hartman books or comics, message me @incorrect-seraphina or @foughfaugh, my main.
> 
> I love all of you so much!
> 
> Zyth


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